Muztagh Pass

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Muztagh Pass - Eastern Muztagh Pass
Compass direction north south
Pass height 5376  m
region Xinjiang Autonomous Region ( PR China ) Gilgit-Baltistan Special Territory ( Pakistan )
Watershed Sarpo Laggo Glacier → Shaksgam Muztagh Glacier → Baltoro Glacier
expansion alpine transition
Mountains Baltoro Muztagh ( Karakoram )
map
Muztagh Pass (Karakoram)
Muztagh Pass
Coordinates 35 ° 50 '24 "  N , 76 ° 15' 7"  E Coordinates: 35 ° 50 '24 "  N , 76 ° 15' 7"  E

BW

Muztagh Pass ( English Mustagh Pass ) is the name of two high mountain passes that cross the main watershed of the Karakoram .

There are two passes: the Old Muztagh Pass , also known as the Eastern Muztagh Pass , with a peak height of 5376  m, and the so-called Western Muztagh Pass (also known as the New Muztagh Pass ) in the west, at around 5,700 to 5,800 meters above sea level. Both passes are on the border between Pakistan and China .

Both passes lie on the watershed between the rivers that flow north and east into the Tarim Basin or south into the Indian Ocean . The Eastern Muztagh Pass is located in Baltoro Muztagh and connects the Muztagh Glacier in the south, a side glacier of the Baltoro Glacier, with the Sarpo Laggo Glacier in the north, which leads to the Shaksgam Valley . The Western Muztagh Pass divides the main range of the Karakoram and separates the Baltoro Muztagh mountain range in the east from the Panmah Muztagh in the west.

The route over the Eastern Muztagh Pass is the shortest route from Yarkant to Skardu on the Indus in Baltistan or to Srinagar in Kashmir . The pass is located approximately midway between the Karakoram Pass in the east, which according to Leh in Ladakh leads and the Kilik- and Mintaka Pass , in the West the Hunza Valley of Gilgit lead.

The pass has been impassable since the mid-19th century as the glaciers spread out on it. In 1861, when Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen was exploring this region, it was found that few Balti living in Yarkand use this pass to visit their families. Frederic Drew reported that the pass between Yarkant and Baltistan was not crossed in 1863 and 1870.

It is unclear how intensively the pass was used in the past, although it is possible that it was used much earlier in the late Han Dynasty . It is also possible, even probable, that the Chinese monk Faxian used this route on his way to India in 399.

Francis Younghusband (1863-1942) was the first European known to have crossed the pass, which, according to a report from Colonel Mark Server Bell , caused him considerable difficulties until he finally reached the village of Askole in Baltistan. An Italian exploration expedition of the Inner Karakoram led by Aimone di Savoia-Aosta, Duke of Spoleto , succeeded in crossing the pass from south to north (or west to east) in 1929. Ardito Desio , geographer and geologist on this expedition, led the expedition for the first ascent of K2 in 1954 . A report about another crossing comes from a French ski expedition in 1986. In 2004 a group led by David Hamilton crossed the western and eastern Muztagh passes on their Great Karakoram Ski Traverse , the latter only because they did not have the time, a crossing further east to find the Baltoro Glacier.

literature

  • Ferber, Aug. CF (1907). "An Exploration of the Mustagh Pass in the Karakoram Himalayas." The Geographical Journal , Vol. 30, No. 6. (Dec., 1907), pp. 630-643.
  • French, Patrick. (1994). Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer . HarperCollins Publishers , London. Reprint (1995): Flamingo. London. ISBN 0-00-637601-0 .
  • Rizvi, Janet. Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh . 1999. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. ISBN 019-564855-2 .
  • Younghusband, Francis. The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs and Chitral, 1884-94 . Published: 1897. London. Reprint (2005): Elibron Classics Replica Edition. ISBN 1-4212-6551-6 (pbk); ISBN 1-4212-6550-8 (hbk).
  • Younghusband, Francis. Wonders of the Himalayas . (1924) Reprint (1977): Abhishek Publications, Chandigarh. Chapter 4, The Mustagh Pass, pp. 55-71.
  • Younghusband, Francis. The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs and Chitral, 1884-94 . Published: 1897. London. Reprint (2005): Elibron Classics Replica Edition, p. 236. ISBN 1-4212-6551-6 (pbk); ISBN 1-4212-6550-8 (hbk).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Younghusband, Francis. The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs and Chitral, 1884-94 , p. 189. Published: 1897. London. Reprint (2005): Elibron Classics Replica Edition. ISBN 1-4212-6551-6 (pbk); ISBN 1-4212-6550-8 (hbk).
  2. ↑ Ferber, Aug. CF (1907). "An Exploration of the Mustagh Pass in the Karakoram Himalayas." The Geographical Journal , Vol. 30, No. 6. (Dec., 1907), p. 630
  3. ↑ Rizvi, Janet. Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh , p. 26. 1999. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. ISBN 019-564855-2 .
  4. ^ Hill, John E. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. An annotated translation of the Chronicle on the 'Western Regions' in the Hou Hanshu . Section 7, note 1.
  5. ↑ Legge, James A. (1886). Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (AD 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline , pp. 21-22. Unabridged reprint (1965): Paragon Book Reprint Corp and Dover Publications, New York, NY ISBN 0-486-21344-7 .
  6. ^ French, Patrick. (1994). Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer , pp. 53, 56-60. HarperCollins Publishers , London. Reprint (1995): Flamingo. London. ISBN 0-00-637601-0 .
  7. ↑ Rollo Steffens: Fascination Karakoram. The wild mountains of Asia , p. 119f.
  8. ↑ Rizvi, Janet. Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh , p. 26, n.7 1999. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. ISBN 019-564855-2 .
  9. ↑ David Hamilton: The Great Karakoram Ski Traverse 2004 at www.summitpost.org (accessed March 9, 2010)